Compare · UN World Population Prospects 2024

North Korea and South Korea, side by side

In 2026, half of the people in North Korea are older than 38. In South Korea, half are older than 47.

UN estimates for mid-2023: North Korea 26,418,204 people · South Korea 51,748,739

North Korea 26.6 million people Half are older than 38 13 in 100 are 65 or older

South Korea 51.6 million people Half are older than 47 21 in 100 are 65 or older

How to read this: each pyramid stacks a place’s people by age — babies at the bottom, the oldest at the top, men on the left and women on the right. A wide bottom means many children; a wide top means many older people.

Compare shapes Compare sizes

Each bar is a share of its own place’s people, so a small country and a large one can be read side by side.

Year 2026 · UN projection

estimatesprojections

men women projected

Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries

PRK × KOR · 2026 · age groups

If each place were 100 people

Shrink each population to 100 people and count them. Dots are children under 15, filled squares are people aged 15 to 64, and open squares are people 65 and over. The picture follows the year slider above.

North Korea

Children, under 15: 19
Aged 15 to 64: 68
Aged 65 and over: 13

South Korea

Children, under 15: 10
Aged 15 to 64: 69
Aged 65 and over: 21

PRK × KOR · families and lifetimes

Children, and how long lives last

At today's rates, a woman in North Korea would have about 1.8 children in her lifetime. In South Korea, about 0.8. Life expectancy at birth this year: about 74 years in North Korea, about 85 in South Korea.

Children per woman, 2026

Each figure is one child: how many children a woman would have in her lifetime at that year’s rates.

North Korea 1.8

South Korea 0.8

The dashed line at 2.1 is about what it takes for each generation to replace the one before it, leaving migration aside.

How long a newborn can expect to live, 2026

Each block is ten years of life, if the death rates of that year stayed the same all life long.

North Korea 74 years

South Korea 85 years

Hatched marks are UN projections (medium variant), not measurements.

PRK × KOR · 1950–2100 · how many

How big, and where they are heading

South Korea has about 90% more people than North Korea: 51.6 million against 26.6 million.

Since 1950 the two have moved differently: North Korea's population is 2.4 times what it was in 1950, while South Korea's population is 2.6 times what it was in 1950.

North Korea's population is expected to peak in 2032; South Korea's population peaked in 2020. In 2100: 19.5 million in North Korea, 21.8 million in South Korea (UN projection, medium).

Show the numbers

Year	North Korea: people	South Korea: people	North Korea: half older than	South Korea: half older than	North Korea: children per woman	South Korea: children per woman	North Korea: life expectancy	South Korea: life expectancy
1950	11.1167 million	19.7573 million	17.3	18.7	4.99	6.06	14.2	22.2
1960	11.7230 million	26.1154 million	19.9	19.3	3.57	5.99	55.8	53.8
1970	15.1728 million	32.5422 million	21.4	18.7	3.85	4.46	62.0	62.2
1980	18.2368 million	38.1411 million	22.4	21.9	2.84	2.73	67.2	64.8
1990	21.1121 million	44.0814 million	25.9	26.8	2.39	1.60	70.5	71.0
2000	23.6659 million	46.7667 million	30.1	31.7	1.94	1.47	60.9	76.2
2010	24.9873 million	48.7693 million	34.0	37.6	1.89	1.23	70.3	80.7
2023	26.4182 million	51.7487 million	37.0	45.5	1.78	0.72	73.6	84.3
2030*	26.7849 million	51.1886 million	39.0	49.5	1.72	0.81	74.5	85.1
2040*	26.5424 million	48.9487 million	42.1	54.3	1.69	0.93	75.7	86.2
2050*	25.7871 million	45.1431 million	43.9	57.7	1.67	1.03	77.0	87.3
2060*	24.6827 million	39.8572 million	44.7	61.1	1.66	1.10	78.4	88.5
2070*	23.3978 million	34.4530 million	46.6	62.5	1.66	1.16	79.8	89.6
2080*	22.1247 million	29.6715 million	48.0	64.0	1.65	1.21	81.2	90.7
2090*	20.8217 million	25.4491 million	48.4	62.2	1.65	1.26	82.5	91.9
2100*	19.5121 million	21.8488 million	49.6	60.9	1.64	1.30	83.8	93.1

* UN projection, medium variant. People at mid-year; ages and life expectancy in years.

PRK − KOR · 1950–2100 · every age

Which ages each place has more of

Each column is a year and each row an age, from babies at the bottom to 100 at the top. The shade of a cell shows which place has more of its people at that age — the key beside the picture tells you which shade is North Korea and which is South Korea, and the in-between shade means the same. Because it compares shares, a small place and a large one can be compared fairly.

236 countries · 1950–2100

Where they sit among all countries

Every country in the world, every year from 1950 to 2100. The grey cloud shows where most countries are; North Korea is drawn in solid blue squares and South Korea in open orange squares, so you can see whether each is ahead of the crowd, behind it or in the middle.

More comparisons

Keep exploring

Each place on its own: North Korea · South Korea. Or pick any two places with the boxes at the top of this page.

Other comparisons

Apparatus

Sources and method

Every figure for North Korea and South Korea is the United Nations Population Division's, from World Population Prospects 2024: counted to 2023, and the medium projection for each year after that. Both places are taken from the same release and the same tables, which is what makes them comparable at all.

How the median age and the “100 people” pictures are worked out, and why the pictures of every country leave the regions out: how the figures here are put together.

There are 250 ready-made comparisons on this site. For anything else, name two places in the boxes at the top of the page.

Sources: UN WPP 2024 · flag-icons. Every source, its licence and how to cite it →

Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries